The Sri Lankans have strolled their way through their preparations, basking in the sunshine (although still besweatered the lot of them), stretching their limbs and cracking their fingers in readiness for the first Test at Lord’s next Thursday. Northamptonshire, weakened anyway by injury this season, and, with little resource to compensate, have been able to provide little more than enthusiasm in the field and some robust strokes with the bat to challenge the visitors.

For the second time in the week, the county find themselves facing the prospect of a hammering although the doomsday thunderstorm forecast for the third day might defer things.

Earlier in the week Yorkshire had taken them for 546 for three, which included a 375 opening stand. Now Sri Lanka went further, reaching 558 for eight before a declaration brought an end to the torture. Technically this included a fourth-wicket stand of 321, although as one of the first-day centurions, Kaushal Silva, had retired ill overnight (a sprightly presence in the field later on, though, and red ink in the scorer’s book which would not be there with ’retired out’, the usual protocol) the alliance was continued with Lahiru Thirimanne, the other centurion, joined by Dinesh Chandimal. Thirimanne reached 152 before he was bowled having a heave at Matt Spriegel, a fate that also befell Chandimal, for 47, in the bowler’s next over.

Later there were some clumping blows from Dilruwan Perera, who reached a half-century by hitting Rob Keogh successively for six, four and another six , before being well caught at deep midwicket by James Kettleborough for 59.

All this though was skirmishing, for the crux of the day would come in the afternoon when the Sri Lankans bowled. There are places for the Test yet to be decided, particularly when it comes to the pace attack. Thirimanne has already suggested that Nuwan Kulasekara and Shaminda Eranga would almost certainly be included leaving a spicy bowl-off between the left-armer Chanaka Welegedara, and the right-armers Nuwan Pradeep and Dhammika Prasad.

Of these Welegedara lends obvious variety but Pradeep looks the most feisty, although it was Prasad who took two of the wickets.

How well they can be judged rather depends on how the quality of the opposition is viewed. There is more than sufficient in the pitches at the County Ground this season to encourage any bowler prepared to bend the back, and Pradeep certainly got some nice new-ball bounce, and a little movement.

It was Welegedara, however, who got the Northamptonshire innings, not to mention a young career, off to the worst of starts. Kettleborough is a product of Bedford School, that which produced Alastair Cook, not to mention the county’s T20 captain Alex Wakely, and indeed a couple of years ago he broke Cook’s school record for runs in a season. This is his first-class debut, and, opening with Stephen Peters, his first ball, from the left-armer, swung nicely back in, caught him on the crease, and he barely waited to see the finger of doom raised.

Peters soon followed, in receipt of a beauty from Pradeep that bounced and left him, and only some volatile strokes from the South African battle cruiser Richard Levi, scorer of the fastest hundred in international T20s (45 balls) but not really engaged by the county to play first class matches pushed things along. He drove with massive power, and cut witheringly, so that he reached 50 of the first 65 scored, and from 40 balls , with 9 fours.

After the tea interval he quietened down, one more boundary and 11 runs from 26 further deliveries, before pulling Prasad straight to deep square leg and dragging himself away, cursing that a chance of a sixth first class hundred had slipped away.